The box office check-up of 1935 (1936)

THE BIGGEST MONEY MAKING STARS of 1934-35 CJ Independent exhibitors judge the box office ranking of 200 players HIRLEY JANE TEMPLE with her six and one-half laughing years has danced to the peak of public favor, and the independent exhibitors of the United States have placed above her curls the laurel as THE Money Making Star of 1934-35, in Motion Picture Herald’s annual canvass of the motion picture box office. It is the ticket office that is speaking, not the exhibitor himself. The verdict is from the week's receipts, not from the showman's personal preferences as to type of product or style of acting. The question placed before the independent theatre owners was this: "Please list the ten players whose pictures drew the greatest number of patrons to your theatre from September I, 1934, to September I, 1935." Hence the Herald survey, year after year, serves the industry in a way not even approached by other canvasses of player popularity: the Money Making Stars are chosen by the box office itself. The vote was by the independent exhibitors of the nation, with the figures of the counting house before them as they cast their ballots, the dollars and cents totals which reflected the popularity of the players in the minds of the public that placed those dollars and cents upon the sill of the ticket window. The questionnaire was limited to theatres without producer or distributor affiliation, with the purpose of eliminating any outside factors that might have influenced the voting by the manager of a producer-owned picture playhouse. More sweeping changes were reflected this year in the voting than in any previous season's questionnairing of the exhibitor in the Herald survey. Six players won their way into the coveted first ten positions who the year before had been accorded widely scattered rankings. Outstanding in the story told by the results was the rapid advancement of little Miss Temple to the highest ranking of all. In the 1933-34 ratings a child player for the first time was placed among the ten elect, in eighth place. Shirley then had had her first season of appearances in feature productions. The Fox contract star-ette, born April 23, 1929, had entered motion pictures in 1932 in the Baby Burlesque short product of Educational. Her first role in a feature had been in Paramount's "To the Last Man," released in September, 1933. From that point on came increasing appearances in features; in 1934 there were "Stand Up and Cheer" and "Baby Take a Bow" for Fox and "Little Miss Marker" and "Now and Forever" for Paramount, followed by frequent starring in Fox product in the last season. Miss Temple's triumph returns the feminine players to the top rung among the Money Making Stars. Will Rogers, who won highest ranking in 1933-34, was the first male star to lead the procession, and had been among the ten leaders each year since the inauguration of the surveys. While there were ten positions represented, as in previous years, actually eleven players won the honors. The divergence came in the balloting on Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Exhibitors variously listed these two stars both as a team and as individuals, for the most part as a team. Each of the two players therefore was given one-half a vote in cases of mention as a team, and a full vote where mentioned individually. Thus they shared fourth place in the final ranking. The rise of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in box office was little less rapid than that of Shirley Temple. It was as late as November 24, 1933, that there came the release of "Dancing Lady" in which Astaire danced with Joan Crawford. A month later — December 29th — was released "Flying Down to Rio." In this Astaire and Miss Rogers danced together; Gene Raymond and Dolores Del Rio were starred. Ginger Rogers had been in pictures for several years, her initial feature "Young Man of Manhattan," a 1930 release. With "Flyinq Down to Rio" the swift pace forward had started, and then THE TEN BEST 1. Shirley Temple 2. Will Rogers 3. Clark Gable 4. Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers 5. Joan Crawford 6. Claudette Colbert 7. Dick Powell 8. Wallace Beery 9. Joe E. Brown 10. James Cagney came "The Gay Divorcee," "Roberta" and in the current season, "Top Hat." Noted also has been the consistent achievement of several players in winning ranking among the first ten year after year. Clark Gable, third this year, took second place in the 1933-34 season. Wallace Beery, eighth in the current survey,' was fourth the year before and in 193132, and fifth in 1932-33. Joan Crawford, in fifth place this year, was sixth the previous season. Type of product in which the winners of the ten leading rankings appeared classifies generally as follows: comedy, two; comedy-drama, two; romantic drama, three; drama, one; musical comedy, one; and musical comedy drama, one. Total player representation showed little change from the previous year's results. There were 200 mentioned for positions this time compared with 208, both being a considerable increase over the 163 named in the 1932-33 survey. Determination of final standings was made on the basis of the total number of times a player was mentioned in the exhibitors' replies, regardless of the relative specified position among the ten nominations. This plan was adopted as giving the truest picture of the balloting, inasmuch as a number of exhibitors pointed out that, while they had been given the opportunity to state relative positions of the players in order of box office returns, the sequence they indicated was only approximately based upon actual box office criteria individually, and others said thaJ they definitely were not attempting to df fine relative positions. Complete standings appear on the following two pages THE BOX OFFICE CHECK-UP OF 1935 83